HispanicBusiness

Ms. Zavala, who joined Los Angeles's dynamic public television station KCET in 1987, is best known to the public as the anchor of the station's signature nightly newsmagazine, Life & Times.
She rose through the ranks at KCET, serving as reporter, anchor, documentary producer, and executive producer before taking her current leadership role overseeing other local series and specials. A graduate of both American University in Washington, D.C., and Yale, she is a trustee of Los Angeles' Mt. Saint Mary's College and a member of the Cal Arts Visiting Committee.

EDUCATION

Enrique Barrera
Chair, Department of Mechanical Engineering & Material Science
Rice University
Professor Barrera is a popular figure at materials conferences, with more than 80 speaking appearances, in addition to his more than 100 papers, proceedings, books, and chapters. Mr. Barrera leads a program at Rice that is directed toward moving underrepresented students in science and engineering to the Ph.D. level and the professoriate. With his Rice colleagues, he received the Presidential Award for Excellence in recognition of their work with minority students. Mr. Barrera also created a K-12 program, the Materials Magic Show, which he and his students presented to Texas-area schools.

Graciela Chichilnisky
UNESCO Chair of Mathematics & Economics
Columbia University
Leaving Argentina after a coup d'etat in Buenos Aires that led to the closing of the university she was to attend, Professor Chichilnisky made the impressive move in 1968 from high school to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Ph.D. program in mathematics. She proceeded to earn two additional Ph.D.s in mathematics and economics from the University of California at Berkeley and has a resume that boasts more than 200 scientific publications and 13 books. With a prolific career marked by innovation, Professor Chichilnisky's leadership spans the university and abroad. She works as a professor of statistics at Columbia University, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's chair of mathematics and economics, director of Columbia's Center for Risk Management, and also created Columbia's Program on Information and Resources.

While working at the university, Professor Chichilnisky is currently suing Columbia for the second time concerning wage inequality between male and female professors. "This suit is a search for justice," she explains. "It is an attempt to bring this great educational institution into the 21st century, ceasing the persistent and cruel discrimination against women scholars, particularly in the sciences, and at the highest levels of achievement."

In addition to her work in academics, Professor Chichilnisky founded and served as CEO of two technology companies based in New York, London, and Tokyo. She also created the Global Market for Emissions Trading for the United Nations' greenhouse gas-reducing Kyoto Protocol, which became international law in 2005. She is currently a top contender for a Nobel Prize in Economics. Aside from all her professional accomplishments, Professor Chichilnisky considers her Hispanic presence as a leader in the professional world an essential aspect of her personal and professional development. "My human connection with the Latin culture has shaped my life, my values, and my family. The impact could not be stronger."